What is a bare metal server and its usages?

The name “bare metal” (bare or exposed metal) shows that this product refers to a concept based on the physical part of web hosting, that is, hardware. A bare metal server is nothing other than what was previously called a germany dedicated server, that is, a computer in the data center of a hosting provider whose resources are available only and exclusively to a client, to which the nomenclature of “single-tenant server” also applies. This is how a bare metal server differs from classic shared hosting products such as virtual servers, in which different clients’ web projects are hosted on the same hardware fundamentals within separate virtual machines.  

Bare metal servers: dedicated hardware for complex projects

IT infrastructures are moving to the cloud and the number of companies that decide to relocate their hardware resources and make use of a flexible rental model is increasing. The specialized web hosting providers offer various models of use for individuals and professionals and it is not uncommon for them to appear with new terms that do not always correspond to an innovative concept.

The creative ideas of the hosting sector are very attractive, although they leave users somewhat perplexed. One of these marketing concepts that gained great popularity in the course of “cloudification” is that of baremetal dedicated servers. Here we explain what it is and under what circumstances this web hosting product should be contemplated.

The advantages of dedicated web hosting are obvious:

Root access: Unlike multiple tenancy servers, bare-metal servers offer root access. In shared hosting it is not convenient for users to make changes to the root directory of the common hosting platform, so the administration is limited to the project directories. On the contrary, every bare metal server offers unlimited administration possibilities, which gives users maximum freedom in terms of software component installation and server configuration.

Dedicated hardware: In shared hosting platforms virtual machines are independent of each other due to encapsulation. However, in this case, a web page could be damaged by damaged scripts or security breaches in other projects hosted on the same physical machine. Bare metal servers, on the other hand, exclude these so-called noisy neighbour effects, alterations in the performance and stability of a virtual server by adjacent web projects. Hardware resources such as hard disk, CPU, and RAM are only used by the server’s tenant.

Bare metal servers are primarily used for high-level web projects that need resources continuously, but projects that must meet special compliance requirements must also be hosted on dedicated hardware.